This would enable Pakistan to meet its imagery requirements in areas of land mapping, agriculture classification and assessment, urban and rural planning, environmental monitoring, natural disaster management and water resource management for socio-economic development.

There are two distinct features of the development – the satellites were launched with the cooperation and assistance of all our time-tested and all-weather friend China and PakTES-1A was indigenous developed by our engineers and scientists. Pakistan is indebted to China for extending help in critical areas especially in technologies that other countries are reluctant to come forward for questionable reasons.

Like other countries of the world, Pakistan too is keen to take advantage of modern technology to accelerate the pace of progress and development but some countries are denying it the opportunity to do so. In this backdrop, China’s willingness to provide assistance in peaceful uses of nuclear and space technology would always be remembered.

Similarly, indigenous development of the second satellite is yet another manifestation of the reality that given opportunity and resources, our engineers, scientists and technicians can excel in every field.